This is the second part of NUFC Editor Mark Douglas’ new book Inside the Rafalution – out now and available in shops and online. The book delves into the successes and difficulties of a remarkable season at Newcastle United – detailing how Rafa Benitez managed to turn around a broken club.

This is an extract from a chapter in the book about the January transfer window – and how Benitez coped with the unexpected turmoil of the month.

Until January of the 2016/17 season, Benitez not only had no contact with Ashley, he would have argued it wasn’t necessary.

Benitez’s plans for January had begun months before the summer transfer window ended. Regular meetings with Lee Charnley had kept a check on targets. Money had been generated from the Moussa Sissoko sale: the assumption that would be made available for January seemed a fair one.

The idea, according to those with knowledge of prior discussions, was simple. If things had gone to plan Newcastle would have brought in three Premier League players on loan, with a permanent deal teed up if they were promoted. The most prominent names mentioned were Andros Townsend, the Crystal Palace winger; Fabian Delph, the Manchester City midfielder; and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, the precocious Chelsea playmaker.

Benitez – seeking to keep the club pushing forwards – believed that signing those three would not only copper-bottom promotion, but it would also mean that the following summer’s work to prepare for the Premier League would be nearly complete. Even before things got complicated, Benitez and Charnley would have anticipated bumps along the way. The impact of the huge TV deal on Premier League finances was to inflate the market.

A £7m loan fee for six months’ football would have seemed like an incredible deal a couple of years before: now even top flight clubs with modest means could turn that kind of cash down in an instant. It made the market much more treacherous.

What Newcastle certainly didn’t need was the return of internal politics – but that was what they got.

Benitez would argue that he is not a political operator. He does not buy the idea that he enjoys the jousting that comes behind the scenes. He says he is a tracksuit manager: a man who plots on the pitch, and whose strategies are about sporting success rather than consolidating power. Sometimes, he’d say, the battle arrives at your door.

Benitez anticipated his Newcastle would be active in January. With the Africa Cup of Nations set to take Mo Diame, Christian Atsu and Chancel Mbemba from him and now Shelvey’s absence to contend with, he felt the club needed to react to support the ongoing promotion bid.

He already felt that the club had entered the season one winger short. His feeling was that the squad needed to be supplemented with a wide player who could add creativity to the squad in a crucial January period.

Perhaps, to the outsider, it looked like Newcastle were hoarding footballers. They had cover in most positions, sat top of the Championship and were managing any injuries that they encountered.

But Benitez saw the chance to strike out again in January, to add players using funds available and double down their advantage in terms of squad strength.

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The recruitment remit had shifted. Newcastle still needed players for the Championship but, top of the division and with aspirations of playing Premier League football again, they had to occupy a unique space in January. To buy players who would be good enough for the top tier but prepared to drop into the Championship for five months would require recruitment skill, finance and a smart use of contacts.

The summer market was tougher than expected so no favours were expected in January. Still, Benitez felt confident that he could make a difference.

Buying from the Continent might have been an option. Another was to assess which players might be unsettled at not playing in the Premier League – and a discreet trawl of that market threw up some interesting names. Townsend, who had left on sparkling terms with Benitez, seemed unhappy at the way his move to Crystal Palace had unfolded. His relationship with Alan Pardew had not been good; his Selhurst Park successor, Sam Allardyce, seemed to harbour similar reservations. Benitez, in particular, saw this as a huge opportunity for Newcastle. Signing Townsend would recalibrate expectations in the squad and send an emphatic message to their rivals and Newcastle’s own supporters. Charnley was urged to get the deal done.

This theory was a bit of an anathema to Newcastle, whose approach previously had been to buy when they needed to. January is acknowledged as a tough market to do business in and, 12 months previously, they had forked out a premium for reinforcements, largely because they felt they had no choice.

Wherever they turned, that premium was going to be a problem.

Rafa Benitez will be quietly hoping for a kind set of fixtures (Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

Graham Carr had recommended Genk midfielder Wilfred Ndidi to the board. He was 20, rated at £15m and possessed the drive and determination that would make him a natural fit for the Premier League. A deal was always going to be impossible. Money and the player’s own desperation to play immediately in the top flight meant a transfer was never a serious possibility.

As the month wore on, it became more fraught. The net was cast wider. The assumption of money to spend meant that names were being looked at. Everton’s James McCarthy, another midfielder of international calibre, was the perfect Benitez buy. Technically gifted but also capable of the industry that Benitez wants from a midfielder, he felt like a perfect capture. Again, there were signals that the player would welcome a move north. But preliminary enquiries amounted to nothing.

They were not the only names being circulated. England internationals Tom Cleverley, of Everton, and Manchester City’s Delph both illustrated the kind of quality that Benitez was looking to import. Neither would be cheap but if the idea was to fast-track potential summer signings, the logic seemed sound. That none were moving close to fruition raised concerns for Benitez.

So, too, did the lack of fluency in some of Newcastle’s performances. Defeats against Sheffield Wednesday on Boxing Day and struggling Blackburn on January 2 were sandwiched by a win over Nottingham Forest that was not as straightforward as the 3-1 scoreline suggested. Shorn of the suspended Shelvey, Newcastle were showing signs of vulnerability. Benitez had picked up on these early warnings. He was hopeful of recruiting and pressed for resolutions but there was little sign of a breakthrough.

Insiders talked of a rising feeling of tension. Even a mooted loan move for Modou Barrow, a Gambian winger who could not break into Swansea’s first team, did not materialise.

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Benitez was sensing a shift in the dynamic and recalled young players Jamie Sterry from Coventry City and Sammy Ameobi from Bolton Wanderers. Neither had been considered ready for Newcastle’s Championship squad at the start of the season but Benitez felt he had no choice with his options becoming stretched.

Their recalls were a sign of problems. When things got more drastic, Benitez even considered bringing Henri Saivet – the Bordeaux midfielder signed the previous January who had failed to make any impact despite a £5m price-tag – back to Newcastle. These looked like desperation measures not in-keeping with a manager as meticulous as Benitez.

Questions were beginning to emerge. Benitez held his counsel in public. Privately, it may have been a different matter. For once, the people that Benitez had plotted the resurgence of Newcastle with did not have the answers.

Inside The Rafalution by Mark Douglas RRP £9.99 is on sale for only £7.99 from The Chronicle front counter, 0845 143 0001 and www.sportmediashop.com . The paperback will also be on sale in all good book stores and Amazon, and the ebook edition is available through Kindle and Apple.